Ptielieren
Ptailierensylvcois X'Faineinzealeanii is the protagonist and regards himself by the truncated "Ptielieren." Uncivilized or Hard races refer to him by the handle "Xiezjiit," which is the name given a kind of digested pig stomach that is utterly unpalatable yet is, technically, edible.
This is actually a very complex character who only hints at his past history in the first few books, but it can be gleaned that he came from wealth and privilege and has a familial obligation to defend a specific, if somewhat distant, heir to the Spiral Throne. Beyond that, he is heavily conflicted with the necessities of securing survival for himself and his ward and the implicit shame in capitulating to his captors. His very lack of thoughts with regard to his kin, except as pertained to those few who made themselves available immediately following his father's death, shows a concrete disconnect and lack of general familial warmth.
Ptielieren's family life is strained, with many funerals having occurred in the past four decades. His mother and two of his matrilineal half-sisters survive, as does a distant half-brother from his father's line, and a few cousins make their presence known throughout the series, though, again, his interaction with these souls in both limited and strained, usually revolving around some manner of business and not a desire on either party to share company. His musings and memories do not usually touch on shared family events, either, and he instead finds direction and a grounded past in the jobs, duties, and titles he has dedicated himself to. This appears to be widely regarded by his kin as the proper and acceptable course, though the estranged of his two surviving sisters would appear to disagree.
Because Ptielieren's sense of self-respect and self-value stems from institutions which are both wildly racist and classist, the transition to living as a very low-ranking member of such an ill-perceived society is incredibly difficult for him to come to terms with. His ideas regarding family and social constructs are almost entirely based on abstract and absolute codes and mores. This leads to his initial culture shock and the anger he feels at himself, at his fellow captives, and at his captors.
In truth, the institutions that most formed the groundwork for Ptielieren's view of the world around him were his time as a gardener and his time as a prison guard. Training for and taking the role of a personal bodyguard for the Royal Line was internalized as an extension of his job in the prisons, though in an elevated setting. As such, he has never allowed a familiar or convivial relationship to develop between himself and his ward. The byproduct is a pair that are cold, detached, and professional in the presence of each other and are utterly inexperienced at offering the kind of emotional support that could otherwise have helped both to find a sense of place and, by extension, a sense of peace in this hostile new environment.
Bieyshiealelleinue
This character is the most well-equipped of the prisoners with regard to finding a place in this new society. While technically a distant relation to Ptielieren, he did not come of age in even moderate wealth. Instead, the first two centuries of his life required that he scrape and fight to keep his family in home and food. He developed his ability to fight through little back-alley contests and honed his reputation as a creature worthy of taking a ward through offering his services as a formal tutor for any number of lesser families, leveraging his affiliation as best he was able.
In the course of these efforts and difficulties, he developed a highly cavalier outlook with regard to other races. While he is not innocent of elitism and a stiff variant of racism, Still, despite his constant struggles and monumental efforts to attain a social rank in keeping with the main line of the family despite every instance of difficulty, said difficulties had managed to cap his potential growth. He fell into a deep depression at around his two hundred and fiftieth year and took to spending his off time in taverns and places of filth, finding in said company an absence of scrutiny that was almost an antidote to the rigors of trying to impress the entrenched gentry.
It was during this period that an assassination attempt went horribly wrong, causing the coach being struck to dart, driverless, headlong into the heart of the Granite District, a region known for its instability and the propensity for racially motivated violence against Civilized individuals. The heir’s ward died at the hands of the assassin, and the assassin died at the hands of a band of street thugs as they both pulled free of the ruined carriage.
The commotion was enough to draw Bieyshiealelleinue from a dingy bar. Seeing the scene and understanding in an instant that the woman was in danger, he lunged forward and dragged her down dozens of back alleys until he could secret her at his home and find what had happened. This, in turn, led to a series of dire events including the death of his mother, the incarceration of his father, and the purge of his neighborhood block as one split decision was chased by another.
By all logic, the pair should not have survived. However, six weeks later, when he managed to present her again to the court, she was accepted. He was not.
What precisely happened after her readmittance to court was never shared, but Bieyshiealelleinue has seen the scars and heard whispers of the political fallout. Two years had passed when a halfling courier presented a letter to the corner of an attic he shared with a family five human-elf hybrids. Bieyshiealelleinue responded to the summons with trepedation, wearing the better of his two outfits and wishing he could present a better face than this for the formal disavowel of relation to the core X'Faineinzealeanii line. In his mind, there could be no other reason for such a summons.
Instead, he was hurried to a room adn the rites of initiation were performed quickly and in secret. The Diaellii Phae'vael burned deep into his flesh and he felt an instant kinship with the woman he was to guard. He was then ordered to take his newly appointed ward on a tour of the neighboring nations and to remain abroad for some thirty or forty years. Whatever scandal had been caused was silenced and sealed, though day to day adventures overrode any particular need or desire to share.
For the pair, fleeing the city was a practiced tradition. While living as a serf to bugbears is not ideal, Bieyshiealelleinue is confident that it is a temporary condition. He worries over the welfare of his ward almost to the point of obsession, as all the good and vibrant years of his life have been devoted to keeping her safe and keeping them both well-adjusted to new scenarios. Secretly, he knows that, once they are old enough to retire from the social world, he and she will take vows of devotion and pair off to spend their eternities as one.
